Is Methamphetamine Use Declining?

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported 6,090 methamphetamine-related arrests during 2005. This is up from 5,893 in 2004 and 6,055 in 2003. During FY 2006, there were 5,395 Federal defendants sentenced for methamphetamine-related charges in U.S. Courts. Approximately 98% of the cases involved methamphetamine trafficking.

According to the Department of Justice -“Clandestine labs have manufactured illicit drugs since at least the 1960s, but the problem has become much more widespread in the past 15 years or so, largely because of methamphetamine’s growing popularity. Perhaps the main reason methamphetamine has become so popular is that it is now simpler to produce: detailed instructions for doing so are readily accessible on the Internet, and new manufacturing methods allow production from an assortment of reasonably easy-to-acquire chemicals. Consequently, an increasing number of people have set up labs to produce methamphetamine for their own use. Because methamphetamine is very addictive, the more people who experiment with it, the more people who become dependent on it, and the more demand there is.”

2 responses to “Is Methamphetamine Use Declining?”

Yes, you’re right. The small labs have declined, I think in part because Mexico is making it so readily available in the U.S. and in part because the government now mandates that any products containing pseudoephedrine be kept behind the counter.

However, getting pseudoephedrine is still an easy thing to do from what I’ve read. So, clandestine labs are still being setup in homes across the U.S. Hence, the problem that presents to homeowners and the health of innocent Americans is still an issue that deserves attention from policy makers.